Sanjay KumarArshpreet Singh2018-05-112018-05-112018http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810045328The present study is an attempt to assess the economic viability of farm households in Amritsar district of the Punjab state during the year 2015-16. A sample of 120 farm families was selected for the study by using multistage random sampling technique. The findings of the study brought out that around 80 per cent of the total household expenditure was incurred on non-food items which is exceptionally very high and need be reduced in order to improve economic viability of the farm families. Education was the major cost component which constituted 24.21 per cent of the total non-food expenditure. The expenses incurred on household utility bills (electricity, telephone and LPG gas) and social ceremonies accounted for 19.85 and 17.15 which also observed to be on higher side. Among food expenditure, the sampled farm households were found to be make over expenditure on intoxicant consumption (25.38%) and dairy products (21.61%) which need to be reduced. The cultivation of vegetables along with paddy-wheat-vegetable rotation generated higher returns than that of traditional paddy-wheat rotation in the study area. The income earned from crop cultivation was the major source of income as 72.74 per cent of the total income was generated from this source. The analysis indicated that marginal and small farm holding has been generating negative earnings which are not good sign in terms of economic viability, while the magnitude of economic viability of farm household increased with increase in farm size. The results of regression analysis brought out that the economic viability of the farm household could be significantly enhanced with increase in farm size, non-farm income and dairy income, however, it would be significantly decreased with over expenditure incurred on rent paid for leased-in land, crop grown expenditure, dairy expenditure, expenditure on education and total household expenditure. Similarly, the discriminant analysis showed that non- farm income was the leading factor which contributed about 24 per cent to the total distance. Hence, the model suggested that efforts should be made to explore non-farm avenues for generating income. Since it is very difficult to increase farm size, the government should provide subsidized infrastructure to develop dairy enterprises along with crop production to enhance family income. Suitable remedial policy measures should be framed for improving the crop value productivity, which may be possible by increasing more area under high value crops.The government, should regulate ever-increasing rent paid for leased-in land which is also an important factor responsible for making crop cultivation unviable. Farmers are advised to curtail household consumption expenditure, adopt cost effective methods to reduce crop grown expenditure on account of making their livelihood economically more secure and viable.ennullThesis